Sailor (Nicolas Cage) and Lula (Laura Dern) are two lovers struggling to remain together even when fate seems intent on keeping them apart. In this case, fate is Lula's mother, Marietta Fortune (played by Laura Dern's real-life mother, Diane Ladd). Marietta is a desperate woman who hates Sailor and will do anything to keep him away from her daughter. After Sailor is released from prison for murdering a man in self-defense, he and Lula embark on a sex-filled, rocking road trip, all while being hunted by Marietta's hired goons and threatened by the grotesquely terrifying Bobby Peru (an unforgettable Willem Dafoe).